Our River Ericht Catchment Restoration Initiative (RECRI), one of two nature-restoration projects in Scotland to receive funding via the Riverwoods Investment Readiness Pioneers aims to unlock a combination of public and private finance to deliver riparian restoration and nature recovery at different scales across the catchment.
The funding for the first stage of design work, which ran from July 2023 to July 2024 and which we have now completed, was provided by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and our brief was to develop a community-led, investment ready project with three outcomes:
Outcome 1: A funded plan for the restoration of habitats across the catchment
Indicator: Landowners commit to an ambitious plan to restore habitats in the Ericht.
Outcome 2: The future of Atlantic salmon in the Ericht is more secure.
Indicator: A funded work programme addresses threats to salmon including a lack of river shading, poor water quality and artificial barriers to migration.
Outcome 3: Communities benefit from the work of the Initiative.
Indicator: The project structure involves local communities in its ownership and governance and is designed to catalyse investment from community groups and individual community members.
You can read how we got on in realising those three outcomes by reading our RECRI Stage One Report.
You can also view this StoryMap which takes you through the ecological baseline assessment of the catchment that we conducted as part of this work. We aim to add further layers to as the project develops.
We are now pitching for further funding to take us through a final transition phase before we move into delivery. This phase will involve the following workstreams:
Workstream 1: Finalising option for RECRI delivery structure, including governance values, ethos & approach, legal structure, benefit sharing, MRV, partnership development, non-exec and exec role briefs, costs and recruitment strategy.
Workstream 2: Deepening engagement with & participation from the catchment’s human communities of interest & place to finalise RECRI restoration vision.
Workstream 3: Securing formal participation of landowners in the River Ericht catchment and confirming restoration project pipeline including woodland creation, peatland restoration and priority projects for wild fish regeneration.
Workstream 4: Securing initial round of blended finance sources for RECRI, signing up front investors, identifying buyers of ecosystem services and public and philanthropic funding streams.
Workstream 5: Investigating the opportunity to scale the delivery structure into a Bioregion-wide nature restoration aggregation platform.
If you are looking to invest in nature restoration in Tayside, whether as a private individual or as a business, please contact us to find out more.
